Matchstick Man
by Nemi Almasy
Summary: The FF7 timeline following Reno and his fellow Turks as they struggle with AVALANCHE, Sephiroth, and even dear old Rufus Shinra. Rewrite of a story I did several years ago. Please R&R.
1. Lights Out, Words Gone

A/N: This is a re-write of a story I did several years ago, the files to which all got deleted both on here and my computer. So on the off chance that anyone reading this thinks it seems familiar, you may have read a more poorly written version a few years ago. Enjoy!

The air was never cool beneath the thick concrete plate that covered the slums of the city of Midgar. There was always a stifling heat, rising off from the decaying earth below with nowhere to flow save for the poorly constructed ventilation ducts in the walls enclosing the city.

The heat was made no better by the stench of garbage piles in dire need of collecting. On the plate, garbage was collected every day, brought down to a massive dump below to await a bi-monthly removal to another dump outside of town. The dump in question was all the way across the city in Sector 3, but the smell permeated through the entire city beneath the plate.

It was making Reno Sinclair gag.

He had just stepped out of a grimy bar in the Wall Market, too drunk to walk straight; he wobbled on his spindly legs and tripped forward, nearly falling to the ground before righting himself.

"Goddamn filthy slums," he slurred. The stench of the garbage was something he could never get used to, though some of the citizens of the lower city seemed to be immune to it. No matter how many times he came down below the plate for missions or a quick stop at the Honeybee Inn, he couldn't stand that stench.

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from the breast pocket of his navy blue, Shinra issue suit and lit it quickly, sucking in the smoke to force out the smell of garbage. He breathed a sigh of relief and with it came a cloud of smoke flowing from his mouth and nostrils. Standing as drunk as he was made him dizzy, so he found a small patch of dry earth and sat down to enjoy his cigarette.

President Shinra had recently enacted a zero-tolerance smoking ban within the Shinra building where Reno spent ninety percent of his time. The policy had been instated in an attempt to boost the health, and subsequently the morale, of employees, but all it had done was make Reno more irritable than usual. The small patio allotted for smoking breaks on each floor was always packed and he could hardly ever just enjoy a cigarette in peace anymore.

The cigarette smoke did a good job of removing the stench of garbage from his nostrils and relaxing him. He couldn't remember where the nearest train station was and he was too drunk to walk to it anyway. There should have been one in the Wall Market, if Reeve Tuesti had ever bothered to have it finished. Reeve rubbed Reno the wrong way, so it gave him a small sense of pleasure to blame the man whenever he had to go out of his way just to get to the Wall Market, but he knew the unfinished construction of Sector 6 was the President's fault. There were more pressing issues to dedicate funds to.

For a while, Reno sat on the ground smoking his cigarette and watching the people pass by. You could never tell the time in Midgar because it was always dark, surrounded by a haze of pollution, but his watch read three fifteen AM. The slums never seemed to sleep, especially the Wall Market. Sleazy, unkempt men walked past with scantily clad girls from the Honeybee Inn on their arms. The local gym buffs ran laps around the buildings. Some orphaned children chased each other into Sector 5.

None of them looked twice at Reno. They all knew who he was. Turks were easy to spot, there were so few of them and they were always down in the slums "doing business" anyway. Besides that, Reno frequented the Wall Market on his time off.

He lay back in the dirt and stared up at the edges of unfinished concrete plate extending out from Sector 5. He pulled on the pair of goggles he usually wore against his fiery mane of hair and stared through them drunkenly. They were in need of a cleaning and further distorted his drunken vision, making everything blend and blur. He giggled and shoved them back up before it made him sick.

If he thought hard enough, he could vaguely recall a train station near Sector 7, maybe twenty minutes walk from where he was, but that seemed much too far. Lying in the dirt made him realize how tired he was and the thought of getting up seemed impossible.

He dug into the pocket of his trousers and pulled a small cell phone from within. It took him several minutes of staring at the screen and messing with buttons before he managed to bring up the number he was looking for, then he pressed the phone to his ear only to realize he had it upside down. When he finally righted it, the other line picked up.

"Reno, do you know what ungodly hour it is?" a husky voice sounded on the other end.

"Rude, man. Man. Dude. My brother…hic…from another…mother. Rude. Hey listen. Hey. Rude. Listen, man. Rude. Are you there?"

"Reno," Rude sighed heavily, "how much have you had to drink."

Reno counted on his fingers and momentarily dropped the phone in the dirt. He scrambled to pick it back up and dust it off. "You there, man?"

"I'm here."

"Can you come get me, man? Rude. You're my pal. My amigo. You get me? Can you come pick me up? You can hop the train from Sector 2 right? Are you at work? Were you sleeping? Rude, can you…oh man! You gotta bring some nachos from that guy who sells them on the corner between Sector 1 and Sector 2. Dude, you gotta bring me them. Come and get me and bring me those nachos."

"Reno, it's almost four in the morning. The guy selling nachos is probably in bed, which is where I was until you called me and woke me up. You can't get the train? Where are you?"

"I'm down in the Wall Market, man."

"Ah, Christ, of course you are."

"Can you come and get me or what? I can't stand, dude. And I've only got one cigarette left in this pack. I might die if you don't get here soon. I feel my legs going numb. Is it possible to overheat so much you burst into flames? Didn't that happen to a guy in Sector 7? Or maybe it was one of Professor Hojo's experiments. I don't remember. You gonna bring me those nachos?" Reno belched loudly and his head spun.

There was a disgruntled sound on Rude's end. For a minute he didn't say anything. "All right. I'll come and pick you up. But only because we have to be at work by noon and Tseng will kill one or both of us if you're missing."

"Noon. Noon. Noon," Reno chuckled. "If you say it too many times it doesn't sound like a word."

"Just stay where you are. The trains run less frequently at this hour so I probably won't be there for another hour. So much for a good night's sleep. Bastard," Rude muttered the last bit under his breath before hanging up.

Reno held the phone open for a while longer before he realized Rude had disconnected. He pocketed it and lit up his last cigarette. Another effect of the President's smoking ban had been that he now chain smoked worse than ever, especially when he was drunk.

His eyelids grew heavy as he puffed on the cigarette and before he knew it they were fluttering shut. His hand slid down into the dirt, extinguishing the cigarette. After a few more minutes, soft snores issued from the back of his throat.

He was sure he had only closed his eyes for a moment when he found himself being shaken awake by a large, bald, black man wearing sunglasses despite the sunless nature of the city. He wore a navy blue suit like Reno's. He also wore an expression of extreme anger.

"Get up. Can you stand?"

Reno blinked languidly. "Rude? What are you doing in my house?"

"Dammit, Reno," he growled. He lifted him to his feet and slung his arm around his shoulder. Reno held onto him and looked around.

"What happened? I'm tired. Can we go home?"

"If you ever do this to me again I'm going to chop your head off and mount it on the wall in my living room."

"I love you, man." Reno leaned his head on Rude's shoulder. "You're the best friend ever. Man. I drank way too much. This guy from…God…where was he from…somewhere on the East Continent…maybe Rocket Town…he bought me some shots. Man. I'm so hammered."

"Your breath could catch fire," Rude's eyes watered as Reno breathed in his face. "You're unbelievable."

"I'was'jus'enjoyin'my day off, MAN," Reno frowned. "At least one of us knows how to have fun."

"There are a lot of nice bars in Sector 2. Why don't you ever go to one of those? Then you could walk home and I wouldn't have to deal with you at four in the goddamn morning on a Wednesday."

"Ah, man, those guys are all uppity in that bar. They don't know how to have fun. These slummers, man. They've got it. They know what it's about. This is where I came from, man. This is…these are my people!"

"They're not your people. They're only nice to you because they're afraid of you. We both know as soon as you put on that suit you stopped being a slum kid," Rude rolled his eyes. "I don't know why I'm even bothering right now. You're too drunk to remember this whenever you wake up later today."

"What?" Reno blinked.

"Nothing."

They made their way slowly through Sector 7 to the train station that would lead them back to the plate above. The normally twenty minute walk took them nearly twice that time, thanks in large part to Reno stopping frequently to point out something only he found hysterical. At one point, Rude tried to carry him, but he kicked and squirmed and nearly zapped them both with his stun rod.

Rude dragged Reno onto the train as soon as it pulled into the station, which wasn't for another fifteen minutes after they'd arrived; a fifteen minutes Rude and two other people waiting for the train spent listening to Reno's drunken rendition of a song from a popular musical that used to play in Sector 2.

The train was mostly empty, so Rude let Reno sprawl out on one side, propping his lanky legs onto the filthy cushions, and he sat across the car on the other side. The train rattled away with an announcement that it would make one final stop in Sector 8 before proceeding to the plate.

"Rude, you know, man, I just gotta tell you how much I love you," Reno drew shapes in the grime coating the train windows. "You are just my best friend. You know that? My numero uno. What would I do without you, you know?"

"Die, probably," Rude shrugged.

"Do you love me, Rude?"

"That's getting a little deep," Rude replied gruffly.

"Come on, MAN. Don't be like that. I know how you really feel. You love me. You're my partner in crime. We'd be lousy without each other."

"You'd be lousy without me," Rude half agreed.

"You'd be lonely without me, admit it. You would. You love me, dude. Even if you don't know how to show it because you're big meaty hunk of man who can't express his emotions."

"You only show yours when you're this drunk," Rude reminded him. "If you remember this later you're going to be embarrassed and pretend it never happened."

Reno waved the comment off. "Do you think one day we'll find true love and eternal happiness and I'll no longer have to drown my sorrows in booze and expensive sex?"

"I think it's now almost six in the morning and I'm too tired to have a philosophical conversation with you," Rude closed his eyes.

"Man, you're really the best."

"Uh-huh."

"I mean it. You're just…" Reno yawned loudly, "my best pal."

A loud chime jarred Reno awake for the second time that morning. "Now entering: Sector 2. This is the second to last stop on this line. Please exit at this stop for Sector 2."

Rude shoved Reno. "Get up, we're here."

Reno struggled to his feet, tired and beginning to feel the oncoming hangover his excessive drinking had earned him. He grabbed Rude's shoulder and they slowly made their way through the streets to their apartment complex.

The difference between the plate and the slums was recognizable immediately. The stench of garbage was gone; the air was cooler and slightly cleaner, though by no means healthy; and the buildings were in generally much better condition.

Reno and Rude lived in an apartment building that had been constructed specifically to house the Turks. The rent came directly out of their monthly checks, which left them only a little leftover to spend on food and other items. Reno didn't mind. He liked his apartment, he never ate much, and he had enough to buy the cigarettes and booze he wanted. Compared to his life before he became a Turk, he was living pretty large.

At that moment, all he could think of was how comfortable his bed would feel.

When they reached the building, a simple but elegant three story building with a brick façade, Rude unlocked the main door and helped Reno up the stairs to their floor. Rude's apartment was only two down the hall from Reno's, so they saw each other all the time, even outside of work. It also made it slightly more convenient when Reno called drunk like he had that night.

Rude propped Reno against the door to his apartment. "You got your keys?"

Reno patted his pockets until one of them jangled. He pulled out his key ring and struggled to find the right key. Rude watched him, his frustration mounting until he finally ripped the keys from his hands and unlocked the door for him.

"Go to bed. And you better be at work by noon tomorrow!"

Reno shrugged and slammed the door in Rude's face. He threw his blazer onto the floor and fell face first into his pillows where he promptly passed out.


	2. Set the House Ablaze

Reno's phone woke him before his alarm could only three hours after he had passed out. His head was throbbing and when he tried to open his eyes, the entire room spun. He reached blindly around the nightstand by his bed until his hand made contact with his phone. He flipped it open with his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"What the fuck?" he growled.

"Reno, you need to get up and come in as soon as possible." Rude was on the other end.

"What? Why?"

"You slept through a damn reactor explosion!"

It took a moment for his aching brain to process the statement. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Wait, what?"

"That renegade group AVALANCHE blew up another reactor. This time in Sector 5."

"So what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Get your ass in here! The President's holding a meeting with department heads right now. If you're not here by the time Tseng gets back from the meeting you're going to be leaving the city in a bodybag after they fire you."

"All I want is a little rest," Reno groaned.

"Don't you know the saying 'No rest for the wicked'?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there as soon as I can." He dropped the phone back on his nightstand and buried his face in his pillow.

After several minutes, he finally peeled himself off of his bed and struggled across the room to his bathroom. He started the water running in the shower and slowly undressed, his head still throbbing. He thought to himself that the asshole renegades in AVALANCHE could not have picked a worse morning to blow up a reactor. Couldn't they have done it after he'd had a good night's sleep without any hangover to hinder him?

He was sick of cleaning up their messes. At first they'd just been spray-painting slander against Shinra around the slums, then there had been a few car bombs targeting Shinra employees, but two nights previously they had blown up a reactor and now they'd blown up another. That was not only a lot of money to rebuild, but a lot of money lost when the mako wasn't flowing in.

He didn't envy Tseng or Heidegger their duties in dealing with the aftermath of these incidents. Then again, he always got put to work silencing who he could and kidnapping who he couldn't. That was just a regular day in his line of work.

The shower was nice and hot when he stepped in and for a while he just let the water run over him. He had no sense of urgency despite the fact that he knew Tseng would wring his neck when he showed up late. Tseng was too authoritative, but there were worse bosses to have in the Shinra Electric Power Company.

He took his time showering and drying off, making his way back into his room with a towel wrapped around his waist and his normally large hair flat and wet against his head. His closet was filled predominantly with copies of his navy blue work suit, but there was a small pile of clothes on the bottom that he sometimes wore on his days off. He preferred the uniform even when he didn't have to wear it.

Once he was dressed, he was slow to leave the apartment, and he stopped to grab a coffee at a café around the corner before he headed for the train station. He stood sipping the coffee on the platform while other people came and went. A small screen hanging above the platform was displaying the news, though news was a strong word for the biased tripe Shinra reported.

"President Shinra is reporting that early this morning at approximately 7:30, renegade group AVALANCHE infiltrated the sector 5 mako reactor. The mako reactor was destroyed using explosives in a similar fashion to the Sector 1 reactor. If you or someone you know has any information about the whereabouts of AVALANCHE it is your duty as a citizen of Midgar to report them immediately. We'll have more on this story as the President continues to provide information."

"Terrible lot, them," An old man standing a few feet from Reno said. "Someone ought to find 'em and shoot 'em dead."

Reno rolled his eyes. Killing AVALANCHE wouldn't stop much. There were plenty of other resistance groups willing to take up the mantle. It might save Shinra a little money for a while, but there would be more. Besides, it was his job to deal with things like that and if someone else did it, he'd be losing pay. AVALANCHE was more useful alive than dead.

He was thankful when the train rolled into the station and he could at least sit down while people gossiped about the reactor around him. A few of them kept stealing glances at him. They all knew he was a Turk. They assumed he knew any more than they did, but he didn't and he probably wouldn't. It wasn't his business to know the details of accidents and he didn't particularly care.

He took a seat as far from everyone else as possible in the last car on the train and closed his eyes. His headache was beginning to dull, but he still didn't feel up to doing much, certainly not sitting in on a meeting with his coworkers.

Though there were about thirty men and women operating under the "Department of Administrative Research", colloquially referred to as the Turks, there were only four big players. Tseng was the head of the department, a subsector of the Public Safety and Maintenance Department. He reported to Heidegger, who headed the entire spectrum of departments that fell under this category. Reno and Rude worked under Tseng and often worked as partners on missions, though they also worked alone. When Tseng had been promoted as head of the department, there had been a spot to fill, and a petite blonde named Elena had been given the position.

Reno wasn't a fan.

Elena was overly ambitious and obviously fond of Tseng to what Reno thought was an inappropriate degree. She was constantly kissing his ass in hopes of praise. What she probably wanted was a chance to work as his partner on a mission, but Tseng tended to work alone and he probably saw her as nothing more than a peppy little girl.

She was the last thing Reno wanted to deal with when he felt like he did.

The train chugged along the tracks, winding its way up the center column of the city's structure to Sector 0 where Shinra Headquarters looked out over the entire city. Reno spent an inordinate amount of time inside the massive seventy-story building. The Turks had an entire half of the 58th floor for their offices, including a break room with a kitchen and furniture. Reno had spent many nights on the couch there and many of his meals consisted of whatever food he could find in the refrigerator. The four top tier Turks had special access to this break room with an additional slightly larger open access one for the rest of them. Sometimes Reno would steal food from the larger break room when he couldn't find anything else.

It took thirty minutes for the train to come to a halt in front of the headquarters. Reno tossed his paper coffee cup toward a trashcan just outside the train, but it missed by a mile and fell to the ground. Taking no heed, Reno proceeded in to the large, industrial looking building, up a small flight of stairs in the lobby that led to the elevator. He swiped his ID and hit the button for the 58th floor, then leaned against the railing and looked out the glass-backed elevator that rose up the side of the building to provide a view of the city.

A few people got off on the tenth floor and another person on the 42nd before the elevator could make its ascent up to the Public Safety and Maintenance Department. On the 58th floor, a wide hallway divided the level into two sections, one for the security department, and one for the Turks.

Reno made his way down the hall into a door leading into the Turks' half of the floor, then down another hall to the conference room. Inside was a short rectangular table with five chairs placed at it. Rude and Elena were already present, sitting across from each other in silence. Reno slumped down next to Rude and rubbed his forehead.

"And how are you feeling?" Rude asked.

"I've had better days."

"Tseng should be here any minute," Elena said, her lips pursed. "You shouldn't have shown up so late."

"Oh, bite me, Elena," Reno spat.

She was too affronted to respond. Rude frowned at Reno, but didn't reprimand him. Reno was about to say something else when the door to the conference room swung open and a tall, thin man with slicked back black hair and sharp, piercing eyes stepped in with a briefcase in hand.

Tseng was about five years older than Reno, but he seemed even older because he was so mature and severe. He took a seat at the head of the table and set his briefcase down next to him. He folded his hands before him on the table and didn't speak for several seconds.

"Reno," his eyes flitted momentarily to the lanky red-head. "Good to see you could make it."

"Ah, boss I was…"

Tseng shook his head to silence Reno. "I've just returned from a meeting with the heads of staff. The President has made some decisions. He was there to meet the renegades last night, but they managed to escape. They have a SOLDIER working with them."

"Just one? Big deal," Reno shrugged.

"Reno," Tseng turned sharply to him. "I have an assignment for you."

"Anything, boss."

"President Shinra is interested in devoting more resources to the Neo Midgar project again. This would, of course, require the assistance of Aerith Gainsborough…"

"That Cetra girl?"

"I would go myself, of course, but given the current situation, the President would prefer I devote my time to other areas, but he's asked me to send one of my men to collect the girl. I trust you can handle as much. Be gentle with her. She won't come willingly and we need her in a healthy state."

"You want me to kidnap the flower girl? That won't be an issue," Reno laughed. This was a task he could have done last night at his drunkest. Even if he wasn't in top form at that moment, he felt pretty confident he could handle it.

"I'll be sending some guards with you for protection. The slums can be dangerous for Shinra employees. Even those who frequent the areas," Tseng added this last part bitingly.

"When do you want me to head out?"

"Immediately. The guards are already waiting at the train station. Aerith's home is in Sector 5, but you will more likely find her in the church in that sector. She has a small flower garden there. Report back to me when you return."

"You don't want me to stay for the rest of the meeting?"

"No, that won't be necessary. I'll only be assigning projects to Rude and Elena. I'm heading the assistance for the direct aftermath of these explosions. I'll catch up with you later."

Reno stretched and rose to his feet. "Sounds like a plan, boss. I'll have that flower girl for you before the day's over."

He turned around the way he had entered and headed out to begin his assignment

A/N: Reviews/constructive criticism are appreciated!


	3. Nothing But Flowers

The Sector 5 slums were just as dingy as any other area of the slums, but a few nice homes had managed to sprout in the area against all odds. A reservoir of clean drinking water let out into a small waterfall in the sector, creating a creek, which ran through part of the area and muddied the earth.

Reno tracked through the mud with three burly guards in Shinra military attire and guns strapped to their backs. They weren't a talkative bunch and even though Reno spoke to them occasionally, they replied with one-word answers. They seemed to think focusing on a task involved a complete lack of personality.

By the time they reached the church in Sector 5, Reno's scuffed black boots were caked with mud, squelching as he moved. He rubbed the mud off on the side of the dilapidated building and frowned. The church was falling apart, positioned almost directly beneath the former location of the mako reactor against the wall of the city. A very thin trickle of sunlight somehow reached through a hole in the roof of the church. A few unlikely flowers sprouted around the door.

Reno opened the door and quietly slipped into the darkened church. Large pillars supported the crumbling ceiling and where the light came in at the altar, a thick patch of beautiful yellow flowers bloomed. Standing in the light was an attractive young woman in a light pink dress. Her long chestnut hair was braided and held back with a bright red ribbon. She wore thick work boots and a metal staff rested on her back. Next to her was something unexpected: a thin, but muscular man with spiky blonde hair and an enormous buster sword strapped to his back.

Reno stepped forward softly and both Aerith and the blonde man looked up at him.

"Hope I'm not interrupting a romantic moment," Reno stood a few feet from them and watched them.

Aerith whispered something to the blonde man. Reno took a few steps closer and then something struck him. The blonde man had the most piercing blue eyes he'd ever seen. He knew those eyes.

"Hey, sis, this one's a little weird, isn't he?" Reno narrowed his eyes. "Aren't you?"

"Cloud, let's go…" Aerith said quietly.

The blonde man's eyes flashed. "You're a Turk," he spat at Reno.

One of the guards behind Reno spoke up. "You want him taken out, boss?"

Reno held up his hand. "I haven't decided yet." He placed a hand on the tazer rod at his waist and took another step forward.

The man called Cloud reached behind him to the handle of his buster sword, but Aerith stepped forward quickly.

"Please! Don't fight here! You'll ruin the flowers."

Reno and Cloud both looked down at the unbelievably beautiful flowers growing in the most unlikely place. It would be a shame to trample the things, he knew. He didn't think he could take on a man with a buster sword anyway. He hesitated and Aerith tugged Cloud's arm.

"The exit is back there!"

The two of them took off and Reno sighed. Nothing ever went his way. Cloud's eyes were what had really made him take pause, more so than the buster sword. They were mako eyes, no doubt about it. Cloud was a former SOLDIER. Maybe even the SOLDIER involved with AVALANCHE.

"All right, get to work!" Reno said to the guards. He tramped through the flower patch to the door at the back of the church where Aerith and Cloud had made their escape. "Oh!" he turned around quickly. "Don't step on the flowers!"

"But you just stepped on them, boss…"

"They're all trampled…"

Reno ignored the guards and stepped into the adjacent room. Aerith and Cloud had already scrambled up several flights of stairs. The guards hurried in to back up Reno and he groaned. "They're up there you idiots!"

The guards struggled to ready their guns and Reno shook his head. "Shoot at the SOLDIER not the girl. We need her unharmed. Well hurry up, you morons!"

They cocked their guns and began to fire, but their aim was unspeakably terrible. They didn't even come close to striking anything but the side of the church and by the time Reno had managed to scramble up one flight of the rickety stairs, Aerith and Cloud were long gone, escaped through another hole in the roof.

Reno sat down on the stairs and tried to catch his breath. "God almighty if I'm not out of shape," he huffed. "You fucking idiots!" he turned his anger on the guards. "Where'd you learn to fire a gun? I've seen chocobos with better aim! Unbelievable! Get out of my sight. Go on. You better believe I'll be reporting your incompetence to Heidegger. You'll all be out of jobs by tomorrow morning. You worthless sacks of shit."

The guards stared at him until he pointed his tazer rod at them. They took off quickly and he remained seated on the stairs in the church. He had not expected the mission to be such a complete and utter failure, but then he had not expected a SOLDIER to be accompanying the flower girl. Tseng wouldn't be pleased, but his punishment might be less severe with the information that she had a SOLDIER with him.

Regardless, he didn't look forward to returning to headquarters without the girl. He reached into his pocket for a cigarette to take the edge off only to remember he had run out the night before. He cursed under his breath and rose slowly to his feet.

He made the muddy walk back to the train station alone and bought a pack of cigarettes at a small kiosk on the platform. As he waited for the next train, he sat and smoked and picked at the dried mud on his boots unhappily. It had been a while since a mission had gone well for him. He kept running into dead ends and escapees. He didn't think Tseng would ever actually demote him, but the thought still lingered in the back of his mind. He couldn't handle being a grunt again. He had to get something right soon or he was going to drive himself mad worrying about it.

Thirty minutes later, he arrived back at headquarters. Tseng wasn't in his office or in the break room, so he dialed Rude first. It took several rings before he picked up.

"Yeah?"

"Hey man, do you know where Tseng is?"

"He was in another meeting with Heidegger I think. Did you get the girl?"

"No," Reno spat. "I don't want to tell him."

"You better do it soon. What happened?"

"There was a SOLDIER. What was I supposed to do? It didn't help that the guards he gave me were completely incompetent. They couldn't shoot the broad side of a barn, the idiots."

"Call Tseng and tell him."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Reno hung up and slumped down onto the couch in the break room. The television was set on Shinra News Network reporting continuously on AVALANCHE's activity and the explosion in Sector 5. He tuned it out and stared at the ceiling.

"I don't want to tell him," he sighed. "I don't want to. I'll just rest my eyes a minute…"

For the second time that day, Reno's phone awoke him from his slumber. It startled him awake and he rushed to open it. "Hullo? Huh? This is Reno."

"Reno," Tseng's sharp voice sounded on the other end.

"Boss. Hey. Um, listen…"

"Rude already told me you didn't manage to capture the flower girl. Don Corneo also informed me that a girl matching her description attempted to attack him with a SOLDIER and another woman."

"So then you know she's got a SOLDIER with her! I couldn't match that, boss. I didn't have a chance!"

"I'm not questioning your competence, Reno. A former SOLDIER is a difficult match. We believe Aerith is working with AVALANCHE now. I need you to assist me in a plan while Rude and Elena are carrying out their own projects."

"What's the plan, boss?"

"We're going to collapse the Sector 7 plate."


	4. Bloodsport

"Come again, boss?"

"We've prepared a set of explosives on the pillar supporting the plate in Sector 7. Reeve is throwing a fit and Heidegger keeps calling him a bleeding heart, but I understand. Many innocent lives will be lost because of this. The President wants to implicate AVALANCHE in the destruction, so there can be no warnings, but I have a feeling Reeve will send a little whisper that way and I have no plans to stop him. I need you to take a helicopter below the plate to Sector 7 and activate the bomb. AVALANCHE will undoubtedly hear about the trouble. We believe they're even stationed there, which is why the President hopes to squash them both literally and figuratively with this maneuver. Hold them off as long as you can without risking getting caught in the explosion. While you keep them busy, I'm going to attempt to head off Aerith and bring her in. The key code for the detonation sequence is seven, eight, three, four, nine. Can you remember that?"

"Sure, boss," Reno shook his head unsurely. "You really think this is a good idea…I mean…thousands of people are going to die just so we can maybe kill these renegades? That's a lot of money for construction too…"

"The public, especially those beneath the plate, seems to largely side with AVALANCHE at the moment. The President hopes this maneuver will change that."

"But what do _you_ think, Tseng?"

Tseng was quiet for a moment. "I think this is a grave mistake and if the members of AVALANCHE survive, their hate will be even more concentrated against us. But I have no time, nor the place to speak against it. Find an available helicopter and start the detonation sequence. As soon as possible."

"Whatever you say, boss."

When the conversation was over, Reno remained on the couch in the break room for several minutes. He didn't want to be responsible for this. If he had managed to catch the flower girl, he wouldn't have to do this. Everything was snowballing.

But it would cost him more to disobey orders than to follow them and it would probably cost Tseng his job as well. He lit a cigarette with complete disregard for the building's smoking policy, flicking the ashes onto the floor of the break room.

"This is some big shit, Reno," he said to himself. "Think about what you're doing." No, he couldn't think too hard about it. It was just a job. Just like every other job, every other day.

When he was done with his cigarette, he headed for the roof where the helicopter pad and control tower were. Only elite members of the Shinra Company could access the floors above a certain level. The roof was exclusive to the Turks and heads of departments.

It was cold that high up on the roof, a kind of cold you could only feel at that height in a city like Midgar, still warm by most standards. Reno shivered a little as he walked across the roof to the control tower. Inside, a few pilots were lounging around waiting for orders. They were grunts. The best pilots were reserved for the President and his top officials.

"Hey, which one of you schlubs can fly me down to the Sector 7 pillar?"

The pilots looked at each other unsurely. Flying beneath the plate required a greater level of skill than flying above it. One of the older pilots stood up.

"I can do it, sir."

"Good. We need to get down there as soon as possible. I've got a mission from Tseng and it's my head if it doesn't get carried out. What's your name?"

"Dale, sir."

"You a good pilot, Dale?"

"I was first in my class!"

"Good. I'd fly myself, but I need to be able to make a fast getaway. Come on, let's get going."

Dale led Reno around the back of the control tower to the large air hangar that housed Shinra's helicopters and small planes. Dale opened the door to the closest helicopter and the two of them climbed in.

"Now listen, Dale," Reno said, staring out the window while the pilot started up the engine. "You need to drop me off on the pillar's platform and keep close up above until I'm finished with my job. There's probably going to be resistance in the form of some renegades. Have you ever flown in combat?"

"Uh…no sir," Dale muttered.

"Well, that's fine. It doesn't matter. Just watch for bullets. Try not to get shot."

"Yes, sir."

"As soon as I'm done, I'll signal for you to get close enough for me to climb back in and then we'll head right back here. You got it?"

Dale steered the helicopter out of the hangar and off in the direction of the uncompleted Sector 6 plate to make his way beneath. Reno was dwelling on what he had to do, so to put his mind off it, he thought about what he might encounter at the pillar. AVALANCHE would almost certainly be there waiting for him. He was just hoping Shinra had sent someone ahead to take out some of the renegades.

The flight was a short one and Dale was a decent pilot. Almost as soon as they flew into Sector 7, they could hear the gunfire. Far below on the ground people were running about in a panic. Two Shinra helicopters were circling the central pillar firing their machine guns at the renegades climbing the pillar staircase. One renegade went flying from the top of the platform to fall to the ground far below.

"Watch the other two choppers," Reno pointed out. "If you stay close to one of them while I'm on the platform you might stay clear of the enemy fire. But don't get in the way of their fire either. They've got more powerful guns, you got me? Now fly in close so I can jump down onto the platform."

Dale was nervous as he positioned the helicopter closer and closer to the metal grating that composed the platform encircling the pillar. Reno opened his door and gauged the distance between himself and the railing around the platform.

"A little closer!" he called.

Dale struggled to inch the helicopter closer. Reno tried not to think about the sickening drop if he missed his mark. He pushed himself from the helicopter and landed hard, but gracefully onto the metal platform where a large, muscular black man was waiting for him.

"You Shinra scum!" He fired what looked like a large machine gun directly at Reno.

"GAH!" Reno rolled quickly behind the large control panel around the pillar where the explosives had been connected. In one movement he managed to right himself and grab his tazer rod. He ran behind the man with the machine gun and zapped him in the back, temporarily stunning him.

It was then that he realized the man's gun was grafted directly onto his arm where his hand ought to be. For a moment, he stared at it, but the man was recovering and he had a job to do. He ran over to the control panel and tried to figure out how to work it.

Footsteps sounded on the staircase amidst the gunfire. Reno looked over and saw Cloud, the former SOLDIER, marching to meet the man with the gun arm. Behind him was a woman Reno had met once or twice before. She was Tifa Lockhart and she ran the bar in this sector, a gorgeous sight, with flowing black hair, but tough as nails. He had never wanted to have to put up a fight with her, but it seemed she was working with AVALANCHE.

"Look, go on and get out of here!" Reno pointed his stun rod at them. "I mean it. You're too late!" he jammed the code into the control panel and his finger hovered over the confirmation key. "Once I press this button…" he was sweating and his hand shook.

'Come on, Reno. Get yourself together,' he told himself. He took a deep breath, put on a strong face, and pressed the button to start the detonation sequence.

"That's all, folks. Mission accomplished."

"We've got to disarm it!" Tifa yelled at her companions. "Cloud, Barret, one of you do something!"

"We gotta take care of this chump first," Barret snarled, training his gun back on Reno.

"We won't have time!" Tifa cried. "You try to disarm it. We'll take care of him."

"Hey! No, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Reno rushed at Barret as he tried to approach the control panel. He shocked his arm, but Barret seemed to take little notice.

Cloud drew his sword and swung it at Reno's head. He ducked and moved forward to avoid another blow only for his face to run headlong into Tifa's fist, armed with metal knuckles. He groaned and clutched his eye and swung his stun rod around blindly. It made contact with Cloud's leg, but didn't do much damage.

He ran to the edge of the platform and waved his arms wildly. "DAMMIT DALE GET DOWN HERE!"

The helicopter took a moment to withdraw from behind one of the other armed ones and approach the platform. Reno climbed onto the railing, keeping his stun rod trained on his attackers. He could see the open door now. He was almost close enough to jump.

He leaped from the platform and at the same moment, Barret fired his gun arm. A sharp pain shot up Reno's calf and his foot slipped as he jumped. He caught the very edge of the open helicopter door, howling in pain.

"GO! GO! JUST FLY!" he screamed.

The helicopter sped away from the platform, bullets still flying at it. Reno's leg was pulsing with pain, blood slowly staining his uniform as it trickled around the bullet lodged in his calf. He dangled from the speeding helicopter, the sharp movements bashing his body against the side and causing him to cry out in more pain. He thought he felt one of his ribs crack as his chest slammed against the side.

Struggling, with every ounce of strength left in him, he pulled himself up into the helicopter where he collapsed on the floor in front of the passenger seat. He had just enough strength to slam the door shut and then everything grew black, his eyes fell shut and he lost consciousness.


	5. Rip it Up

Reno awoke on the couch in the break room with an ache in his leg and a slight headache. He struggled to remember what had happened before he passed out and then it came flooding back to him. There was thick bandaging wrapped tightly around his leg, his trousers cut off at the knee. The bandaging was tinged pink where the blood was beginning to seep through.

He struggled to sit up and his head spun for a moment. His eye was throbbing and he remembered the punch he'd received from Tifa's metal knuckles. He reminded himself to repay the favor to those assholes from AVALANCHE if they had made it out of Sector 7 alive.

It was then that he suddenly remembered the planned destruction of the plate. He turned his attention to the television that was always on in the break room and hurried to turn up the volume.

"If you're just tuning in, President Shinra has just released an official statement that the renegade group AVALANCHE has claimed responsibility for the collapse of the Sector 7 plate early this evening. So far the death count is three hundred, but officials at the scene say it is likely much higher. AVALANCHE have claimed responsibility in an effort to display how far they are willing to go to combat the Shinra Electric Power Company. President Shinra has said they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and he is devoting a large portion of the Security Department's time to finding them…"

Reno muted the television and rubbed his head. He wanted some ice for his eye, but the thought of crossing the room to the refrigerator was daunting with how painful his leg wound was.

He propped his leg up and opened his phone.

"Reno, how are you feeling?" Rude answered.

"Like death, thanks for asking. What happened?"

The pilot brought you to the medics and they fixed you up. You had two bullets in your leg…"

"TWO!?" Reno cried. "God, no wonder it hurt so much. If I ever see that piece of shit again I'm going to bash his fucking head in, you better believe me…"

"You're also lucky you can still see," Rude interjected. "The doctors said if you'd been hit any closer to your eyeball you'd probably have permanently damaged your eyesight. For now you'll just have a black eye for a while. We brought you back up to the break room to rest. Tseng wants you to stay there and keep yourself comfortable until we have further orders. We're trying to deal with the aftermath of the plate collapse. We know for sure the leaders of AVALANCHE made it out. Tseng managed to capture the ancient girl so we think they may come after her."

"I missed a lot while I was passed out," Reno sighed. "Well, I won't say no to a little well-deserved rest. I would say send Elena up to wait on me, but I'd rather deal with the pain of walking."

Rude laughed. "I've got to go, buddy. I'll call you if anything comes up."

"Yeah, stay safe, man."

When the call was over, Reno flipped the channels until he found a cartoon he used to watch as a child. He let it play without paying much attention to it and thought about how long he could manage to milk this injury to stay out of work. Knowing Tseng, it wouldn't be long at all.

He decided to test out how hard it was to walk. He swung his legs around to the floor and slowly pushed himself up, using the coffee table to support him. He carried most of his weight on his good leg and found it didn't hurt the injured leg too badly. Slowly, he applied more weight to the hurt leg. It didn't feel fantastic, but he managed to hobble over to the fridge with only minor difficulty. He got himself a bag of ice and some potato chips and moved back to the couch to watch television and munch on the food.

After about an hour of lounging on the couch enjoying himself but for the pain in his leg, Reno's phone rang. "Maybe that's Tseng calling to wish me a speedy recovery," he said as he licked the salt from his fingers and wiped them on the sleeve of his trousers.

"Hello?"

"Reno, how are you feeling?" Tseng asked.

"Oh," Reno put on a sad voice. "Well, you know, boss, I've been much better. My leg's hurting me quite a bit."

"Can you walk on it?"

"Well, I guess I could try…"

"Good. AVALANCHE have infiltrated the building and bypassed security. I've sent Rude and Elena to help find them, but I want you to help as well. Rude's checking by way of the south elevators. You should check by way of the north elevators. Report anything suspicious back to me. Just make a sweep of the upper floors. Our security cameras indicate they've passed the sixtieth floor by now."

Reno groaned.

"What was that?" Tseng's voice had a biting tone.

"Whatever you say, boss. I'll head out to the northern elevators now."

"Good. Oh, and I hope your leg gets better soon. We can't afford to have you off the job."

"Gee, thanks," Reno hung up and struggled to his feet.

His stun rod was hanging in his locker, so he hobbled over to it and made his way to the elevators on the building's northern wall. They were less used, so it stood to reason that AVALANCHE might make use of them, but he suspected they were probably bypassing the elevators for the stairwells.

Inside the elevator, he swiped his access card and jammed the next floor. He leaned against the side of the elevator and looked out at the city. There was a smoldering pile of debris where Sector 7 had been. His stomach turned.

The elevator stopped at the next floor and when he saw nothing, he continued on his way up. When the elevator stopped at the 61st floor, he found himself facing a young woman maybe a few years younger than him, certainly not older at any rate. She looked just as surprised to see him as he was to see her. He hadn't been expecting to encounter anyone. It was past business hours and he doubted many people were coming or going on any of the floors.

She was dressed in a pair of ripped jeans and a lavender sweatshirt, her brown hair tied back into a tight ponytail with blonde roots showing. She eyed him for a moment before she stepped into the elevator and stared blankly ahead.

Reno watched her while the doors remained open.

"You gonna hit a button?" he asked after nearly a full minute of the elevator remaining stationary.

The girl jumped in alarm at the sound of his voice. "Oh," she blinked at him and jammed the button for the next floor down.

"ACCESS KEY REQUIRED," the elevator chimed.

Reno narrowed his eyes and she nervously fumbled through her pockets. He quickly drew his stun rod, pressing the edge against her neck. In the same moment, she drew a gun and cocked it, pressing the cool steel against his temple. They stood with their weapons pointed at each other in a standoff.

"God dammit. I didn't want to have to do any work tonight. You're with AVALANCHE aren't you?"

"No I'm not!" she spat. "But I'd be glad to help them. I bet you feel really good about yourself hunting them down, you Turk scum!"

"You know, I'm really getting tired of people calling me that," Reno sighed. "Drop the gun. Do you even know how to use it?"

"Of course I know how to use it. And I'll shoot you in the fucking head if you don't put your tazer down."

"Fat chance, missy."

They glared at each other as the elevator remained motionless. The girl was sweating and he knew she wouldn't pull the trigger, he was just waiting for the right moment. If he acted too quickly she might fire accidentally and he really didn't feel like losing a piece of his brain. The night had been painful enough as it was.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" her hand began to shake.

"You sure you know how to use that thing?"

"Of course I do…" her words faltered.

That was it. Reno took his opportunity. He moved his hand swiftly and knocked the gun to the floor. It clattered against the metal and he grabbed hold of the girl's arm, yanking her against him and pressing the stun rod against the front of her neck. She struggled in his grasp and kicked at his injured leg. He yelped in pain, but held his grip.

"You little bitch!" he hissed.

"Let go of me!"

"Oh, well since you asked nicely," Reno rolled his eyes. He struggled to swipe his access card while keeping a hold on her. He jammed the button for the 58th floor, accidentally pressing the adjacent buttons, and the elevator groaned into motion.

"I'm going to get a nice fat bonus for this. Today's really turning around," Reno smiled. "Can't wait to tell Tseng…"

The girl continued to struggle. "Let go of me you piece of shit!"

"Uh, no. I don't think so."

The elevator opened up on the 60th floor and the girl stopped struggling at the sight. Reno's grip loosened slightly and he nearly dropped his stun rod.

Standing several feet away was some sort of body, noticeably missing its head. It was too large and discolored to be human, its movements too unnatural. It left a trail of blood in its wake.

Currently it was ripping apart what had once been a security guard. Reno felt bile rising in his throat. The girl pressed her back against him in an effort to move further away from the creature ripping the man into pieces.

Quite suddenly, it seemed to notice them. It turned itself toward them and wrenched the guard's head from its body, throwing it with incredible force into the elevator. Reno pulled himself and the girl out of the way and the head splattered against the wall before rolling to the ground. Blood splattered on their clothes. He jammed the door-close button repeatedly, trying not to look at the head in case he might throw up. The doors mercifully closed and the elevator began moving to the 58th floor.

"H…his head…" the girl gasped.

Reno put his hand over her eyes and yanked her head away from it. "Don't look at it!"

She didn't fight him.

He closed his eyes until he heard the chirp of the doors opening. Whatever had attacked the guard hadn't made its way down yet, unless it was heading up. Reno wasn't sure and he didn't want to find out. He dragged his hostage into the break room away from the elevator and the head within. He quickly locked the door and leaned against it, his heart pounding hard in his ears.

"What the fuck was that thing?"

The girl shook her head. "It just ripped his head off."

"I…I gotta call the boss…I gotta…hey," he took a few deep breaths. "Okay. I need to calm down. I have a hostage here. I can't let you escape…"

"Yeah, because I'm going to go running back out to get ripped apart by that thing!" the girl cried.

"It would be great to trust you and all, and I do kind of believe you on that, but you're my hostage now, so there's not going to be any trusting you."

He opened up his locker and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. He clipped one end on his wrist and grabbed the girl's arm forcefully to clip the other end on hers. "They're not as comfortable as the ones I've got at home," he grinned.

She gave him a look of disgust.

"Okay. Hopefully that thing doesn't come looking for us," he dragged her over to the couch and sat down. "We should be safe in here for now. I've got to call my boss, so keep quiet."

She glared at him as he picked up the phone. "Tseng?"

"Reno, did you find anything?"

"Uh, well I did find some FUCKING MONSTER that ripped a guy's head off on the 60th floor."

"What!?" Tseng asked.

"Yeah. It threw a security guard's head at me. I'm locked up in the break room right now."

"Good. Stay there until I find out what's going on."

"I also captured a hostage," Reno added.

"A member of AVALANCHE?"

"No," Reno sighed. "But she's definitely a renegade. What should I do with her?"

"Just keep her there for now. Rude ran into AVALANCHE in the southern elevators earlier, but they left him pretty badly bruised. He's being tended to by the medics right now."

"Shit. Okay. I'll just wait here and try not to get killed."

"Good work on the hostage, Reno. I'll talk to you soon."

Tseng rarely complimented him, so he took it gladly. He hung up and turned his attention to his hostage. "All right, so let's start over, hm? I'm Reno. Lovely to meet you. What's your name?"

She curled her lip at him and stared at the television.

"Well you don't have to talk if you don't want to, but you're gonna be stuck with me for a while, missy so you better get used to it."

"Ruby," she said through clenched teeth. "My name is Ruby. Just stop calling me missy."

"Ruby. That's a pretty name. You're pretty cute. If you weren't a renegade, I'd probably do you."

"Flattering," she rolled her eyes.

"Hey, any girl should be so lucky."

"I'd take a pass."

Reno propped his legs up on the coffee table and shrugged. "Your loss."

"What did you do to your leg?" She asked.

"One of those little shits from AVALANCHE shot me. Twice," he spat. "And then another one did this," he pointed to his black eye. "So you'll forgive me if I'm not exactly sympathetic to the renegade cause."

"We're not renegades. We're a rebellion. There might be many groups, but the goal is the same. Bring Shinra down and end the destruction of the planet."

"Have you ever considered the economic downside to your plan? Without Shinra the world economy would collapse and the planet might survive, but you sure as hell wouldn't. You'd all starve to death. Good luck with that."

Ruby crossed her arms, yanking Reno's arm as she did so. "I'm done talking to you."

"Fine by me," Reno turned the television up. "I can enjoy this show without any interruptions from you."

Both of them were still dwelling on the experience in the elevator, but they did their best to push it from their minds. Reno chose to dwell on what must inevitably be his impending raise in salary and Ruby focused on her anger at the situation until they were both stewing in their emotions waiting for word on their safety.


	6. Middle of Nowhere

Reno had fallen asleep, his head slumped onto Ruby's shoulder. She tried to push him off in disgust, but the handcuffs they both wore made that difficult. As she was attempting to get him off of her, there was a loud pounding on the door.

She froze and ducked down, afraid it might be the monster again, but the sound of a key turning in a lock told her it was probably just another Turk. The door opened and Rude entered looking slightly beat up, but not nearly as bad as Reno.

Ruby stared at him and he stared back. "You must be the hostage."

She didn't reply.

"I'm Rude," he said shortly, before moving around to the other side of the couch. He grabbed Reno's shoulders and shook him violently. "Wake up."

"Wha…?" Reno's eyes snapped open. "Ow! Do you mind?" he swatted Rude away.

"Tseng sent me to get you."

"Yeah?"

"I've got a few things to report before we head out."

"Head out where?" Reno demanded.

"Junon. Tseng wants us to take the long way around and possibly head off AVALANCHE. He thinks they're headed through the swamp to get there. He also said they believe the monster you saw was Jenova's body. Hojo's been housing it in his laboratory, but they don't know how it possibly managed to escape."

"WHAT!?" Ruby cried.

They both looked at her and she stared at her lap with sudden interest.

"Also, the President's dead. They're saying it was Sephiroth, but that's impossible. He's dead isn't he…" Rude shook his head. "I don't know. But his son Rufus has taken his place. So we answer to him now."

"Rufus," Reno and Ruby both groaned at the same time.

Again, the two Turks stared at her.

"So who's she?" Rude asked.

"Her names Ruby. She says she's not with AVALANCHE but she's still a renegade."

"Tseng said he's raising your salary…"

"I knew it!" Reno cried. "Yes. All my hard work is paying off!"

"…so that you can afford to keep the hostage alive until we get to Junon."

"Excuse me?" the smile slid off Reno's face. Ruby snickered.

"He wants us to bring her with us to Junon. He'll deal with her there."

"I've got to put up with her all the way to Junon and we can't even take the direct route? Great."

"We can't even take a plane," Rude laughed. "He wants us to drive it in case we managed to run into AVALANCHE."

"This is absurd. This is grunt work."

"We both know it's not."

"Well I shouldn't have to babysit a hostage the whole time!" He cried.

"You could always let me go," Ruby suggested.

"You stay out of this."

Rude laughed. "We need to get going before we lose a trail on AVALANCHE. They'll be in a hurry to get as far from here as possible."

Reno sighed and wrenched his arm to drag Ruby along with him to his locker. He pulled out a few spare suits and a small travel bag and shoved them into it. Rude prepared his own things and then the three of them made their way into the southern elevators, careful to avoid even looking at the northern ones.

"They're doing maintenance on the northern elevators after the, uh, incident," Rude said.

"I'll bet," Reno groaned. "I don't want to think about it."

The elevator took them down to the ground floor, which opened onto Shinra's massive garage containing company vehicles and, further off, parking spots for the few employees who lived just outside of the city. Rude made his way along the rows of vehicles and Reno followed, tugging Ruby along after him.

They reached a faded, rusting blue pickup truck and Rude pulled a key from his suit pocket.

"We have to travel in this hunk of junk?" Reno complained.

"It's inconspicuous."

"Oh yeah, real inconspicuous. Two Turks in their uniforms driving around with a girl handcuffed to one of them in an big ugly pickup truck."

"All anyone is going to see is the truck blurring by. They won't suspect it's Shinra issue. That's what we need. AVALANCHE certainly won't immediately pinpoint it as such. Now shut up and get in."

Reno opened the door and shoved Ruby in before climbing in after her. He crossed his arms and stared moodily out the window as Rude started up the engine and navigated the truck to the front of the garage, which opened to a small tunnel leading out of the city. Their way was blocked by a small electronic gate. Rude swiped his ID and the gate opened and they zoomed off into the tunnel.

"I hope you don't get car sick," Reno said to Ruby. "If you do, get sick on him, not me."

Ruby glowered at him. "If I was going to get sick on anyone it would most definitely be you. I don't even mind him. Besides being a Turk, he's really done nothing to offend my senses."

"Oh and I have?"

"YOU TOOK ME HOSTAGE."

"Whatever," Reno shrugged.

"If this is how the whole trip is going to be I'm going to have to throw one of you into the back of the truck."

"Throw her. Maybe she'll try to jump out and die in the process."

"Then you'd lose your pay raise," Rude pointed out.

"It doesn't count as a raise if I have to use it to keep her alive. What a joke. I deserve a real raise after today. I kidnapped a hostage, avoided being torn apart by a fucking monster, and did I mention I blew up the fucking plate for Heidgger?"

"You blew up the plate?" Ruby gasped.

Reno sighed. He didn't really want to gloat about something like that. As heartless as the job could sometimes entail him to be, killing thousands of people to send a message to a renegade group was definitely too far. It was all the more reason he felt he deserved a raise, doing something so heinous for his boss, but gloating about it was too much. He couldn't very well pretend she was unjustified in the anger she was now showing, but he was already growing to dislike her, so he was going to be stubborn.

"Yeah. I had orders."

"And you didn't question killing thousands of people just to pin it on AVALANCHE?"

"I did what I was told!" Reno barked. "Do you know what happens to Turks who don't follow orders? Do you know what kind of government secrets we top tier Turks are privy to? You don't get fired if you do your job poorly. They send you out of the city in a body bag. Do you get it? It was my life if I didn't do that job. Somebody had to do it and it fell to me."

"So you think your life is worth more than thousands of innocent people?"

"AVALANCHE should have thought of those innocent people before they declared war on Shinra. You don't mess with the biggest military power in the world and expect there to be a happy ending," Reno hissed.

"You're despicable. Absolute scum," Ruby glared out the windshield. "I think I would rather die than be chained to you right now."

"Well believe me, Rubes, if I had my way, I'd kill you right now. But the boss wants you alive, so neither of us will be getting what we want."

Rude shook his head. "Senseless."

"What?" Reno turned his attention to him.

"What Heidegger had you do. It was senseless. I don't disagree that AVALANCHE shouldn't have messed with Shinra, but the loss of innocent lives, the monetary loss from all that destruction. It seems like the most foolish way to go about it."

"But also the most drastic," Reno shrugged. "It got AVALANCHE out of the city and on the move and it sent a message to other renegades. There won't be anyone messing with Shinra in Midgar for a while yet."

"Still senseless."

As the truck drew further away from the city, the light of dawn began to show. The further they got from the polluted skies of Midgar, the more blue and grey they could see in the countryside.

It was over a day's journey to the Midgar swamp. It had once been a dumping ground for Midgar's waste material, but it had become overrun with monsters, so the dumping had been moved to an inlet on the ocean that was much closer to the city.

If AVALANCHE was traveling on foot, they would catch up to them easily within the day, but only if they hadn't stopped to hide out anywhere. It wasn't their mission to go out of their way to find AVALANCHE, only to look for them on the path to Junon.

"Our luck is not going to lead us to AVALANCHE," Reno yawned. The day was definitely beginning to catch up with him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Rude said. "You ran right into a renegade in our own building. You haven't got bad luck."

"I got shot in the leg twice. I wouldn't call that good luck."

"I'd call it well deserved," Ruby piped in.

"Did I ask for your opinion?"

"Do you think I need your permission to give it?" she retorted.

"You're insufferable."

"So are you!"

"You're both getting on my last nerve," Rude said through clenched teeth. "Reno, you probably do deserve a few more bullets in you than you've ever had, _Ruby_, you're going to have to accept the fact that you're stuck with us indefinitely. You may as well get used to it and stop arguing."

"I don't have to be a compliant hostage," she complained, "and I don't see why I should be. If I have no means of escape, which unfortunately seems to be the case," she jangled the handcuffs binding her to Reno, "I'm not going to make it easy on either of you."

Reno pulled his stun rod from his side and zapped Ruby in the shoulder. Her body shook and she fell limp against Rude. Rude sighed and shoved her off of him. Her body slumped against Reno's side.

"You didn't have to do that," Rude complained.

"She's a hostage. She's lucky I don't do worse. Anyway, it shut her up, didn't it? What are you being so soft for?"

"I'm not being soft," Rude muttered.

"You were, man," Reno glanced down at Ruby, her head resting on his shoulder. He reached and unzipped the very top of her sweater to catch a glimpse of her cleavage.

"Really, Reno?" Rude glanced sideways at him and curled his lip.

"What? Might as well have a good view if I'm stuck with her. She's wearing a tank top underneath anyway."

"You're a pig."

"Do you even think like a normal human being?" Reno raised his eyebrows and stared out the window. "Like have you even had sex, man?"

"Of course I've had sex," Rude bristled.

"Sure. Whatever you say."

"We're just not all as obsessed with it as you are."

Reno closed his eyes and pressed his face against the cool glass of the window. Rude was still talking, but he wasn't listening. Instead he focused on the sound of the truck engine as it sped along the crumbling highway east away from Midgar and the feeling of Ruby's warm skin against his.

It had been a very long day and too long since he'd slept well. He didn't intend to fall asleep, only to rest his aching eyelids, but sleep found him before he knew what had happened.

* * *

A/N: I guess I should add that I have taken a few artistic liberties with the plot. Nothing major, just shuffling a few things a little to suit the story better. Hopefully it's neither too distracting nor upsetting. Reviews are very appreciated!


	7. Oily Water

Reno awoke at dusk still exhausted. His sleep was restless in the truck and he wished desperately for a soft bed. Ruby had recovered from being shocked earlier and she sat with her arms crossed, glaring ahead out the window.

"How was your nap, sleeping beauty?" Rude asked.

Reno rubbed his eyes and sat up. "Where are we?"

"Not sure how far we are from the swamp," Rude shrugged. "Road ended a while back. I took a break there to nap as well and this one tried to kill me," he nodded to Ruby.

"What?"

Rude tossed a bangle across the truck and it landed on Reno's lap. He picked it up and examined the small glowing orbs fastened into the indentations along the metal.

"It's pretty low level materia," Reno laughed. "You thought you could knock him out with some cheap bolt materia? Good try," he pocketed the bangle.

"You should have searched her for additional weapons," Rude said. "You're lucky that's all she had."

"I hope you feel good about yourself," Reno said to Ruby, "taking advantage of a tired man like that. What did you think you were going to do when you knocked him out? Drag me along while you ran to freedom?"

She didn't reply.

"Oh, now you don't want to talk. Convenient. Well that's fine. I'd be just fine if you never talked again."

"Don't think I didn't notice my jacket was unzipped when I came to," she spat. "You pervert."

Reno just chuckled, so Ruby reached her arm up and smacked him in the head, the chains of the handcuff whacking him as well, right against the bruise on his eye. He groaned and clutched his head. "You little…"

He lunged at her, grabbing her by her collar. She clawed at his hands and the two of them shoved against Rude, who rammed his foot against the brake. This sent them flying into the dashboard and down into the space in front of the seat on the floor. Reno lay sprawled on top of Ruby with his face lodged against her chest. She had hit her head and was slightly dizzy, but she hurried to swat at his head.

"Get off of me!"

Reno pushed himself up. "But I was so cozy."

She whacked him across the head again.

It was then that Rude grabbed both of them by necks and yanked them up into the seat with alarming force. They both rubbed their necks and grumbled.

"If you both don't stop behaving like children, I'm going to leave you in the middle of the swamp for the Zolom to eat. Do you understand?" He glared at them both from behind his sunglasses.

"Yes," they both muttered.

"Good," Rude put the truck back in drive. "We're going to stop and make a camp soon. We won't reach the swamp within the next hour and I'm not trying to drive through it at night and risk being blindsided by the Zolom or some other monster. You two can help by shutting up and keeping still."

Neither Ruby nor Reno spoke for the rest of the drive. Reno glared out the window and Ruby stared ahead through the windshield. Rude enjoyed the silence.

As soon as the sun had completely set, Rude brought the truck to a stop in the middle of the vast grassy plain they had been driving through for most of the day. Great snow-capped mountains loomed up in the distance to the north and smaller knolls and hills spread out to the south.

"You two can sleep in the bed of the truck and I'll sleep in here. There should be a blanket in the kit on the side of the bed."

"Great," Reno kicked open his door and yanked Ruby out after him. She followed him quietly around to the back of the truck. He opened up the bed and found the kit Rude was talking about. Inside was a thin, ratty blanket and pillow. He hoisted himself up into the bed and Ruby had no choice but to climb in after him. He took the pillow and curled himself up under the entirety of the blanket.

"Aren't you going to share the blanket?" Ruby asked.

Reno smiled. "You can share it if you get close enough to share it."

She snorted in disgust and laid down on the hard, ridged surface of the truck bed. With the sun down, it was growing colder and the wind was picking up in the valley. But she was stubborn and had no intention of getting close enough to Reno to share the blanket. She closed her eyes and turned her back to him as best as the handcuffs would allow.

Reno wasn't about to vocalize it, but he was cold even under the blanket. He shivered and tried to bunch it tighter around him, but it didn't help. The cold made his leg ache worse than it already was. It was unbelievable to him that he was a high-ranking Shinra official who ought to be sleeping in a five-star hotel and he was instead sleeping in the cold bed of a rusty pickup truck with a hostage chained to his arm.

Unfortunately, there weren't any major towns with inns on this side of the swamp. They wouldn't have a place to stay until they were already halfway to Junon. It would have been so much simpler to fly to Junon. They would have arrived already and he'd be sleeping in a comfortable bed without some stupid renegade in his handcuffs.

He lay awake, shivering against the wind as it picked up, for nearly an hour before he felt Ruby stir next to him. She crawled under the blanket and pressed herself against his back, tucking the blanket around both of them. He could feel her shaking against him, but she stopped after a few minutes. The warmth of her body substantially dampened the cold from the wind.

"Don't try anything funny," he whispered.

He heard her snort unhappily, but she didn't say anything. He closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

Reno stirred as the sun was beginning to rise when he felt a hand creeping around his hip and into the pocket of his trousers. He waited a moment as it dug around before he clasped his hand tightly over the wrist.

"You're reaching for the wrong spot, Rubes," he turned around to face her, still holding on tightly to her arm. "If you were looking for the key to the cuffs they aren't in my pocket. They're in my bag inside the truck and you won't be finding them. But if you want to stick your hand back in my trousers and look for something else, be my guest."

He dropped her arm and she sat up quickly, frowning at him. "I thought you were still asleep."

"I was until you tried to cop a feel."

"I'd rather die," she spat.

"Come on now. You're saying you wouldn't sleep with me even if I was the last man on earth?"

She curled her lip and pulled her ponytail out to fix it. Her hair bunched in loose curls around her shoulders and against her breasts. For a brief moment Reno thought she was beautiful, but he shook the thought away and began folding the blanket.

Rude emerged from the car and grunted at Reno before walking a few feet off to relieve himself against the hillside. Ruby frowned.

"What? Does that offend you?"

"No," she groaned. "It's just I really have to go."

"So go. I won't look."

"Sure you won't."

"I'm serious," he crossed his finger over his heart. "I promise. Just come on. We'll walk over there and you can do your business."

"Really?" she asked unsurely.

"Well I'd rather that than you peeing all over yourself and being stuck next to the smell for hours. Come on," he slid out of the bed of the truck and led her along a few feet away to a small dip in the plain where Rude wouldn't see her.

True to his word, he looked away while she undid the button on her trousers and took care of her needs. After a moment or two, when she had finished, she tapped his shoulder.

"Thanks," she muttered.

"You don't have to look away from me if you don't want," he winked and unzipped his trousers without warning.

She groaned in disgust and looked away quickly. When they had finished they met Rude back at the truck and climbed back into the cab.

"I called Tseng," Rude said. "They've arrived in Junon. No sight of AVALANCHE though. He thinks we may have passed them. I gave him our coordinates and he says we're probably two hours from the swamp."

"Great. The sooner we get to Junon the sooner I can unchain this pain in my ass."

"How'd you two sleep?" Rude asked.

"Ruby tried to take advantage of me this morning," Reno feigned insult.

"I did not!" Ruby cried. "I didn't…"

Rude laughed. "I wouldn't believe it if you had. What was she doing? Looking for the key to the cuffs?"

"Yeah," Reno shrugged. "I can't blame her. It was a sneaky move. But a dumb one."

They started off back on the plain toward the swamp. They were all quiet for a while. Eventually Reno's stomach began to grumble and he rummaged around his bag for the few bits of food he had packed.

"You want some of this?" he unpacked a small roll of packed rice and hard cheese.

Rude shrugged. "I ate a little bit before I got out of the cab this morning. I'll be fine until we get through the swamp and find an inn or something."

Reno offered a bit of the cheese to Ruby. She looked at it skeptically, but decided she was too hungry to turn it down and snatched it from his hand. They shared the contents of the pack until it was empty, but they were both still hungry.

"So Ruby, you live above the plate or below it?" Rude tried to make conversation.

"What do you care?"

"I'm just trying to pass the time, okay?"

She shrugged. "I lived in Sector 4, but I spent a lot of time in 7 as well. In the slums I mean. I lived below the plate. I had just left Sector 7 an hour before the plate collapsed," she gave Reno an icy glare. "After that I infiltrated the Shinra building looking for some revenge. Now I'm here."

"You're working alone?"

"I don't belong to any resistance groups. I helped AVALANCHE with a few tasks once or twice, just to bring in some money and because I used to work the bar at Tifa's place so I knew them. They asked me to join, but I didn't think they took the right approach to things. Especially once they started blowing up reactors. I don't agree with the reactors either, but…a non-destructive means of retaliation would have been taken more seriously."

"Or squashed more readily," Reno muttered. "There's probably a reason everyone's heard of AVALANCHE and nobody's heard of you."

"Anyway I didn't have a plan when I got into the building and that was my biggest problem. I should have been more prepared."

"Too late now," Reno laughed. "I hate to break the bad news to you, but your experience so far has been the high life compared to what will happen when we turn you over to our boss. He'll squeeze some good information out of you one way or another. Especially now that we know you've worked with AVALANCHE."

"I'm not afraid of your boss."

"No? You will be."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"I'm not looking forward to getting to Junon," Rude admitted. "Rufus is going to be running everything. It'll be a nightmare. That idiot let's everything go to his head. He already had his foot in the door waiting for his father to kick it. I wouldn't be surprised if this whole ordeal at headquarters was just some assassination plot so he could gain power."

"He wouldn't," Ruby shook her head. "Even he's not _that_ evil."

"And how would you know?" Reno chuckled. "Look at this renegade sticking up for Rufus Shinra."

"I'm not sticking up for that piece of shit," she said quickly. "I just don't think he killed the President."

"It doesn't really matter. We have to answer to him now either way."

"You don't have to do anything. Do you ever question your orders? Don't you ever think for yourself instead of doing everything your bosses tell you to do? Doesn't it get exhausting following orders for a living?"

"No way," Reno shook his head. "It's an easy job. Do what's asked of you, get paid, get laid. Easy."

"You're such a charming man," she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Don't tell me you're single. You couldn't be with an attitude like yours."

"What do I need a girlfriend for? She'd just get nosy and ask questions about my job. And I've got no interest in dating within the Shinra dating pool. No thanks, pal. I'll stick to picking up girls at bars. They're much easier to deal with than some God awful long term commitment."

"You must have been ignored by your parents as a child."

"I don't know my parents," Reno said sharply. He looked out the window and the atmosphere in the truck seemed to change drastically.

Ruby picked at the fabric of her sweatshirt. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean…"

"What do you care? You hate the Turks, right? You hate Shinra. We're all just mindless corporate zombies answering to the big boss. Not people in any capacity. Every time AVALANCHE or some other stupid renegade group blows up a mako reactor or fires on our guards and SOLDIERS it's somebody's family member they're killing isn't it?"

"It's a bit hypocritical of you to complain about that. Every time you kill some civilian who knows too much or fire on renegades those are people with families too. That's just how war works. I thought a Turk would know as much."

Reno knew she was right, but he didn't want to admit it, so he didn't respond. As the truck rose to the peak of a large hill on the plain, they found themselves looking down on a vast murky swamp with a dangerously constructed, slightly flooded vehicle path leading through the water and the reeds. A slight glow from the radiation of mako waste emanated from the depths of the water.

"Ready to drive through this?" Rude asked.

"I'm ready to get rid of this," Reno nodded to Ruby. "So yes."

Rude led the truck down the hill and slowly onto the path through the swamp. The water sloshed around the truck as they moved and the sky grew darker and cloudier the further they went.

"Have you ever been through this swamp before?" Ruby asked them.

"No." they both answered.

"People talk about the Zolom all the time, but I don't see anything except a few toads and some little snakes."

"We'll know the Zolom if it comes," Rude's grip had tightened on the steering wheel.

"You nervous, man?" Reno asked.

"Of course I'm nervous. I don't want to drive through this damn swamp. You've seen what mako does to SOLDIERS. Imagine what it can do to monsters. The Zolom's proof of that."

"I don't think anyone's actually ever seen the Zolom," Reno complained. "I really don't think it exists."

"Don't jinx us," Rude's eyebrows furrowed. "Reno, get in back and take my gun."

"Excuse me?"

"Just in case. I want someone to be back there to shoot at anything that might be on our tail."

"And how am I supposed to aim with this thing hooked to me."

"If you call me a thing one more time I'm going to rip your cock off," Ruby spat. "Give me the gun. I'm probably a better shot than him."

Reno laughed. "Yeah, give the gun to the hostage so she can shoot us."

"I swear I won't. We're in the middle of the swamp. If I jump out I'd be dead in a few feet. If the monsters didn't get me, the radiation would. And it's not really to my advantage to shoot either of you until we're anywhere near a town where I could get some alternate mode of transportation. I couldn't drive this thing through the swamp or the hill caves, and I have only a vague idea of where to go after that. You can take a risk one way or you can take it another, but you're risking your lives either way."

Rude scratched his chin. "She kind of has a point."

"No she doesn't! Shut up," Reno grumbled.

The truck shook as a thunderous sound moved the ground beneath them from far off. They all looked at each other.

"Okay, fine," Reno dug around in the bag at his feet. "You're really a good shot?"

"I'm the best damn shot in Midgar and probably on the western continent, if not the entire planet."

"And not conceited at all," He shoved aside his clothes until he found the keys to the handcuffs. He looked to Rude, "You're sure about this?"

The truck shook again and Rude nearly drove them right into the swamp water. "Just uncuff her, Reno! Whatever is making that sound is getting closer and I'd like to have a competent shooter ready for it."

Reno sighed in defeat. "Fine. But if you try anything funny I'll kick your ass right into that swamp," he warned Ruby.

"I already gave you my word."

"Yeah because I value that so highly," he unlocked the cuffs and Ruby rubbed her sore arms.

Rude pulled his gun from his side and handed it to her. "Get in the back and get ready to shoot."

She took the gun and climbed out the back window into the bed of the truck. Reno followed her and held his stun rod tightly. "I'm ready if you try anything funny."

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes and readied the gun. She positioned herself against the wall of the truck so she had a steady seat. The truck shook yet again and she peered over the edge nervously. "Something's coming for us."

"This is why people don't travel through this place. Rude, you okay?" Reno asked.

"I'm fine, but it's getting foggy up ahead."

As the truck moved forward slowly through the swamp, a thick layer of fog surrounded them. The pounding sound that continued to shake the truck drew closer and closer. Ruby tightened her grip on the gun and Reno's finger hovered over the button on his stun rod.

"Do you see anything, Rude?"

"No. I can barely see the road in front of me. What about you?"

Reno scooted to the edge of the truck anxiously. He peered over the edge just as an enormous serpentine head leaped up from beneath the water. He screamed and scrambled backwards as far as he could.

The Midgar Zolom rose up out of the water, its body as wide around as three tree trunks, its head rising up over twenty feet above them before plunging back down and narrowly missing the truck's rear. It opened its mouth to reveal two enormous fangs nearly as long as Reno's entire body. It focused its beady black eyes on the truck and lunged.

Ruby fired the gun and lodged three bullets right between the eyes of the snake, but the Zolom was unfazed. It rammed its head against the truck, rocking the bed to the ground before it bounced back up.

"FLOOR IT, RUDE!" Reno cried.

Ruby let another round off into the snake's mouth when it opened it, but the shots did little but further enrage the snake.

"Shooting's not doing anything!" she cried.

"Hold my arm," Reno demanded as he rose on shaky legs.

Ruby grabbed his arm and held him steady as he stretched his stun rod over the edge of truck and into the swamp water. He hit the button and a charge ran through the water, visibly moving along the snake's scales.

The Zolom shook and hesitated momentarily before continuing its assault. It reached its head into the truck and nearly took Reno into its mouth if Ruby hadn't fired a shot directly into its eyeball. A red stream of blood shot from the wound and sprayed Ruby and Reno. Reno moved quickly away from the snake's head as it thrashed.

"You've done it now," he said to Ruby.

"I just saved your ass!"

"STOP TALKING AND SHOOT IT!" Rude was pressing the gas as hard as he could without running the truck into the swamp water.

Ruby fired off her rounds as the snake lunged again and again at the truck, but the bullets seemed to do little to slow the Zolom. She fired again and found her ammo depleted as the snake lunged forward again.

"Shit, it's empty," she cried.

"Shit," Reno echoed.

They both scrambled up as the Zolom brought its head down into the bed of the truck. It's mouth clamped around Ruby's leg and she crumpled against the floor, screaming in agony.

Reno jammed his stun rod into the snake's mouth and reached to his belt for a small knife he sometimes kept there. He yanked it free and leaped onto the Zolom's head, driving the point of the knife to where his best estimate of the snake's brain was. The snake shrieked at the pain of the electricity in its mouth combined with the dagger driving into its skull. It let go of Ruby's leg and sank back into the swamp for the moment.

"What happened?" Rude called back.

"Just keep driving!"

"I see the caves up ahead."

"So hurry up!" Reno dropped down next to Ruby and grimaced at the sight.

Her trousers had been torn away and a long strip of skin on her calf had been ripped away with the snake's fangs. One fang had pierced through the muscle of her calf, just missing her bone, but tearing through to the other side. She lay writhing in pain, her eyes squeezed tightly shut as tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

"Shit," Reno bit his lip. "Poison. Okay. Have to get rid of the poison first," he pulled his shirt sleeve back and examined the materia in the small band around his wrist. He had no materia for curing poison.

"Hold on, Rubes. I'll find something."

"Yeah, I'm going anywhere on this leg," she growled.

Reno leaned into the truck's cab. "Do we have any antidotes in here?"

"I've got one in my bag. Check it," Rude said. "What happened?"

"The fucking thing took off half her leg."

"What!?"

"Well, maybe not half. It's not good at any rate," he reached down into Rude's bag until he found a small bottle of poison antidote serum. He pulled it from the bag and dove back into the bed of the truck.

Propping Ruby's back up against his knee, he hurried to open the antidote and tip it down her throat. She coughed and hacked at the horrible taste, but almost immediately she felt it coursing through her veins, combating the snake venom already taking its toll on her body.

"I've got some restore materia that should heal up the hole in your calf and maybe help the skin, but it's going to hurt."

"It already hurts," Ruby hissed.

Reno pressed his hand against her bloody leg and activated the materia. A green glow shot from his hand into her injured tissue. She dug her nails into his leg and screamed.

"FUCK!"

"I told you it would hurt."

Her eyes rolled backward in her head. "Shit…I can't…"

"Rubes?"

Her body went limp and she lost consciousness.


	8. Side of the Road

Ruby awoke on a bed in a small room with windows that looked out on the mountains, curtains blowing in the wind. The sunlight streamed into the room in lazy streaks and for a moment she felt completely content. Then she came back to reality.

A burning pain in her calf was causing the whole leg to throb. Her hair was matted with dirt and sweat and her clothes were tattered and filthy. When she tried to push herself up, she found her body felt too weak and exhausted to manage it.

"And so sleeping beauty awakes," Reno stepped into the room.

She stared at him. "You saved my life."

"You saved mine," he shrugged and sat down on the bed adjacent to hers. "Anyway my boss would have killed me if I let you die, so you know, I had to. Don't think I was being soft or something."

She laughed even though it made her ribs ache. "Of course not."

"How are you feeling?"

"My leg is killing me and everything else aches."

"The snake kind of slammed you into the truck when it grabbed you. I don't know if you remember. You're really lucky you're alive. You were a good shot. If it hadn't been a freak mutant mako snake you definitely would have killed it."

"So does that mean I can go from here on out without the handcuffs."

"We'll see," Reno smiled.

"Where's Rude?"

"He's getting some grub downstairs. Are you hungry?"

"I'd like to wash up before I do anything," Ruby felt her stringy, matted hair and sighed. "If I can stand."

"Do you need any help?"

"You don't have to be nice just because I'm hurt and I saved your ass," she swung her legs around with difficulty and struggled to stand.

"I'm not being nice," Reno protested. "Whatever. There's a bathroom over there and some spare clothes in the bag there. Wash up yourself," he curled his lip and took off from the room.

"Well, that was almost an agreement," Ruby muttered.

Reno tramped down the stairs of the small inn to a dining hall where Rude sat downing his third bowl of soup. Reno sat next to him.

"How's she doing?"

"She's awake," Reno said. "And no longer a flight risk with that bum leg."

"You're two of a kind," Rude chuckled.

"I'm better off than her for sure. She's lucky she still has a leg. That thing should have torn it off."

"It would have if it wasn't for you," Rude pointed out.

"Yeah yeah. She saved my ass and I saved hers. We're even on that front."

"So what do you want to do now? We must be three hundred miles from Junon still. Maybe more actually. The mechanic down the road said he can fix the truck, but it'll take him another three days to get all the parts he needs because we're in the middle of nowhere and he has to get them shipped in from the next town over."

Reno shrugged. "We better call the boss and have him send a chopper. I don't want to drive the rest of the way and with this pit stop there's no way we're ever going to be on the same path as AVALANCHE. Maybe they'll be headed for Junon too. They were nosing around Shinra headquarters. Junon's the next biggest target after Midgar."

"I'll call him once I've finished eating and see what he thinks," Rude suggested. "I think he'll understand. The faster we're back to work, the better for him, right?"

"Yeah exactly," Reno stood up and grabbed a bowl of soup from the small buffet table in the dining hall. He sat back down next to Rude and drank the soup eagerly. "This tastes good after that hard cheese."

"It's not very good soup, but it's better than nothing."

Rude stood up to make the phone call to Tseng just as Ruby hobbled into the dining room wearing one of Reno's spare suits. It was a bit tight on top and a bit loose in other places and in general looked very ill fitting, but her old clothes were out of the question, mostly torn and soiled. She had washed her hair and she at least looked cleaner, if not still worn out.

"You ever think of joining the Turks, Ruby?" Rude laughed.

Ruby didn't seem to find any humor in the situation. She sat next to Reno at the table and glared at his soup.

"You look stupid," he greeted her.

"It's not my fault you're shaped so weird."

"I'm not shaped weird," he laughed. "I just haven't got tits."

"Would you get me some soup please?" she ignored him.

"Get it yourself."

"My leg really hurts."

"So does mine," he shrugged.

"I'll leave you two to your bickering," Rude shook his head and left the room.

Ruby stood up and used her good leg to kick Reno's bad one. He yelped while she hobbled over to the buffet table to get herself some soup. He had his arms folded over his chest like a child when she returned to the table.

"I ought to kick your leg for that," he told her.

"So do it," she shrugged and sipped her soup. "I'll bet you're too soft to kick me."

"I'm not soft!" he protested.

"So kick me."

"I'm not going to kick you either."

"Fine," she drank the soup hungrily. "Where'd Rude go to?"

Reno sipped at his own soup irritably. "He went to call Tseng. See if we can get a helicopter out here to take us to Junon."

"Do you think he'll be mad?"

"No. He probably knew he was sending us on a wild goose chase. I don't think he counted on us being attacked by the Zolom though. I think he just sent us to give me some time to get my leg healed up."

"Yeah? How's that feeling?" she smiled at him.

"Well it was just fine until a few minutes ago, thanks."

"Mine hurts to put weight on," she said more seriously. "That snake really tore the muscle apart."

"I was telling Rude you're lucky you even still have that leg. We had the local doctor look at it and bandage it and everything. He thinks it will heal fine, but he said any more damage and he probably would have recommended amputation. Actually he said if we hadn't used our materia, the tissue would have been permanently damaged. For now you'll just have a nice fang-shaped scar in your calf."

"Look," she stared at her soup bowl. "You didn't have to save me. You could have saved your own skin. I mean I still hate you because you're a Turk and everything, but…I really am grateful for what you did."

"All right," he shoved his own bowl away. "Don't get all sappy. You're still my hostage. But I guess you don't have to wear the handcuffs anymore since you can't exactly run away…unless you want to wear them," he raised his eyebrows.

She punched him hard in the arm. "And here I thought you were being nice for a minute."

"That hurt," he grumbled, rubbing the injured arm.

"Good."

Rude reentered a few minutes later and took a seat across the table from them. "Tseng is going to fly out here himself and pick us up."

"What?" Ruby and Reno both said at the same time.

Reno and Rude turned to stare at her. "Why are you so concerned?" Reno asked.

Ruby shrugged. "I'm just surprised your boss is coming all the way out here just to take you back to where he is."

"Tseng was still dealing with damage control in Midgar. It's not exactly on his way to come get us, so I don't know if it's good or bad. He was sort of cryptic on the phone," Rude said. "I told him about everything that happened and he said he'd come get us and decide what to do with her."

"Why doesn't he just leave her with us? We can get the info out of her." Reno asked.

"She's been driving you up the wall for the past two days."

"Yeah…Tseng is just a little unforgiving in his methods of information extraction, isn't he? I mean, I'm not saying we should go easy on her…" he chose his words carefully while Ruby leaned her head on her hand and watched him speak with interest. "It's just…come on, man, she just had her leg nearly ripped off by a giant snake. Don't you think she could have a little break before she gets tortured for information?"

"Man, Reno," Rude shook his head sadly. "You're getting soft."

"Shut up! Quit saying that."

"I agree with him," Ruby nodded. "A proper Turk would make sure the leg came off slowly and painfully. Look, I'm not even working for Shinra and I'm a better Turk than you are."

"Well you sure don't look it," Reno spat.

"Get me a fitted suit and I would."

"Yeah, you wanna walk around playing dress up?"

"You'd like that wouldn't you."

"Oh, I don't need you to wear anything to play with me," he shot back.

"Children," Rude interrupted. "Tseng's going to be here bright and early tomorrow morning. We should all get some rest. Ruby, you'll sleep in the middle bed in the room we rented. Don't want you sneaking out while we're asleep."

"Whatever," Ruby shrugged.

That night, they all slept in the small room they had rented out, Ruby in the middle bed as they had planned. She found trouble getting comfortable with the pain in her leg, but she managed to finally drift to sleep for a while.

Reno was up half the night wondering if he might lose his job for some reason when Tseng showed up. He knew it was foolish to think as much. He had captured a rebel hostage and managed not to get her killed in the middle of the Midgar swamp. That deserved some sort of praise.

He was also having trouble sleeping thinking about what Tseng might do to interrogate Ruby, which then made him anxious about why he cared in the first place. It shouldn't have mattered to him what happened to the obnoxious, outspoken, pain in the ass renegade, but he still seemed to care.

When sleep finally did find him, it was very fitful.


End file.
